Poultry feed hopper



Patented Dec. 15, 1931 PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN LrMUN'SONZOF ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA POULTRY FEED HOZPPER Application filed February 8, 1930. Serial No. 426,844.

This invention relates to a hopper for feeding poultry'or the like. As usually constructed hoppers for this purpose embody an elevated hopper chamber in which the feed is placed and from which the, feed gravitates downwardly as it is picked away at the lower that portions of .thefeed will notstop in.

dead pockets in the feed line from'thelhoo per chamber (low-n tolthe feed troughf If mash is being fed in such a hopper, it may happen that if the hopper is not attended to as suggested above, a portion of the mash 10 becomes fixed in the hopper and may become sour. If this sour mash at. a latertime passes down into the'feed trough it-may cause sickness in the poultry beingfed. 7

Another objection to hoppers of this kind as usually constructed is that at the feed trough where the feed is exposed to -the poultry, the hopper is constructed in such a way that the poultry may pick the feed atan elevated point where it is exposed. Inthis way some of the feed in the trough may be left for some time uneaten and itmay become sour.

The general object of this invention is to provide a poultry feed hopper that will overcome theseobjections and having a construction on its interior which will insure that all the feed placed in the hopper chamber will feed down intothe feed trough; also to provide a hopper of this kind having such a con struction'as will prevent the feed becoming clogged atany point in the hopper.

A further object of the invention'is to construct the hopper in such a way that in picking the feed the poultry are'obliged to pick it substantially at. the lowest point of the feed line, thereby preventing any possibility of feed being left uneaten in the feed-trough, p p

r from the lower edge of the rear wall 1 and also to become sour. a;

Further objects of the invention'will appear hereinafter.

The invention consists in the novel parts and combinations of parts to be described hereinafter, all of which contribute to .produce an efficient poultry feed hopper. p

A preferred embodiment of the invention v is described in the following specification, while the broad scope of the invention is pointed out in the appended claims. 7

In the drawings: r v

Figure 1 is a vertical section througha hopper embodying my invention and indicating the feed within the. hopper. V

Figure 2 is front elevation of one end of the hopper. r i I Figure 3 is a vertical section upon a re ducedscale at the lowerend of the hopper and 55 indicating the relation of the screen to the hopper when the hopper is empty. H

In practicing the invention I construct the hopper in such a waythat there is no possibility forthe feed to become choked in the 0 hopper as it passes down from the elevated hopper chamber to the feed trough. 1n order to accomplish this I prefer to construct the hopper with a substantially vertical backwall 1 which can be set up against the face of the wall 2 of the poultry house. If de-- sired, the wall 2 can be provided with short. outwardly projecting rudimentarylhooks 33 which maybe received in any one of a plu-- raiity of openings '1 in the back wall 1 ofthe m hopper. This enables the hopper to be supported at difierent heights from the floor.

The feed 5 may be placed in the hopper' chamber 6 by lifting the removable cover 7. The feed chamber 6 has a bottom wall 8 that extends rearwardly from the front Wall 9 of the hopper and inclines donwwardly toward the back wall 1. This inclined bottom wall 8 has sufficient inclination to insure that the feed will gravitate down it. Its lower edge 10 terminates short of the rear wall 1 so that a throat 11 is formed through which the feed passes downwardly along the feed line toward the feed trough 12 that is formed at the bottom of the hopper. Thisfeed trough has an inclined back wall 13 that extends forward has an outer bottom wall 14' that may make an angle of 90 degrees, with the wall 13.

The throat 11 has its narrowest point upi permost, that is to say, it is of increasing width toward its lower end, the forward wall of the throat being formed by means of a relatively short inclined guide board or plate 15 which inclines downwardly and outwardly toward its lower edge 16 at which point the feed may pass into View of the poultry. This guide wall offers a desirable resistance to the downward movement of the feed.

I provide means for preventing the poultry from picking the feed near this point 16 because in that event the feed below this point might not be consumed immediately and might become sour. In order to accomplish this I provide a guard 17 preferably in the form of a wire mesh screen the lower portion of which constitutes an inwardly offset por tion or foot extension'ls that is o'fi set inwardly with respect to the body portion 19 ofthe screen, the body portion *19 being connected 5 with the foot extension by an inclined extension 20. This screen is preferably movably mounted, for which purpose I prefer to supportitby aplurality of hooks 21 at its .upper edge at which point a pivot rod 22 may be provided carried at the upper edge ofthe' screen and rotatablysupported in the hooks. When "the hopper is full'of feed, the screen or guard 17 will occupy substantially thepos'ition shown in Figure 1, the outer face of the screen lying adjacent to theinner edge'of a horizontal sill that extends throughout the length of the hopper between the end boards or'end'walls 2% of the hopper.

Vhen the hopper is empty of feed, the

' screen will fall downinto thefeed trough 12 (see Figure 3).

hlVith a hopper constructed as described it will be evident that there is no pointin'the line of movement of the feed from theho pper chamber Gin which thefeed can lodge.

The feed will gravitate down the inclined bottom wall 8 and if passes the inlet into the throat 11 it cannot choke below that point because the throat ll enlarges in a downwa rd direction. Furthermore, the poultry in picking the 'feed'must pick itin the vicinity ofthe sill 23 which insuresthatfeed cannot remain uneaten at a low point in the feed line. I

It is understood that the embodiment of the invention described herein is onlyone of the many embodiments this invention may take, and I do not wishto be limited in the 'l practice o fxthe invention, nor in the claims,

"tothe particular embodiment set forth.

That I claim is:

,1. A poultry feed hopper having a hopper chamber with an outlet opening below'the saineand having a substantially vertical back wall with an inclined guide wall below the outlet and extending outwardly and forwardly from the, said back walhsaidhopper having an opening on its forward side opposite the said inclined guide'wall, and a screen sameand having substantially vertical back wall with'aninclirie d guide wall below the ,Ofltls and gextending outwardly and forwardly from the said back wall, said hopper :having an opening onits forward side opposite the said inclined guide wall, and a screen supported on thediopper so as to swing inwardly at itsflo'wer end and having an inwardly offset foot extension throughiwhich the poultry may picktheieedfiheupperportion of the scr'een operating as agua'rd to'prefoot extension 3. A poultry feed fhopper havin a feed outlet below at which the feed within the vent the poultry picking the feed above hopper is exposed, and a screen supported at an'upper point to swing' inwardlya't thefeed outlet, and having an; offset lower extension to restuponthe feed and through which the p u tryime'y.p kth f di h upp p'r i of the screen operating as; a guardto prevent the poultry from picking the ffeed above/the fi et lq r ex en en 4- .A P ult y fee h ppe h n a s stantially vertical back wall and having a hopper chamber forward of the back wall i her'ine i sibo o w ixi in n ow wardly toward thesa-id back'wall an'd 'terminating short of the backwall so asto form a throat 'leadingi from the hopper, said hopper having a forwardly extending iriclinedguide wall receiving the feed co ning ow w shp a h o to P es nt t es m to'the 'poult'ry, and ascreen'supported at its upperfedge 9n thelhopper, said screen having a 'f oot extension to rest upon the feed and through which the poultry may pick the feed.

A poultry hopper having a hopper chamber 'withan outlet opening below 7 the same and; having a} subs t ntiallyver'tical guide wall, and a screencoveringthe said opening through which the poultry inay pick thefe e. I fl Signed at Arcadia, Calif.,this3 lst day of Jan., 11 9 30.

' JOHN L. 

